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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action. |
https://neurope.eu/article/volkswagen-reportedly-avoids-us-trial-compensates-car-owners-affected/ Volkswagen Group avoided a trial in the US as it reached a deal with the American authorities over the emissions scandal, media reports say.
German newspaper “Die Welt” and Reuters news agency reported that the German giant multinational agreed to compensate each fixed vehicle owner with $5,000. Moreover, VW will repair the vehicles installed with the “defeat device” and in some cases it may also offer to buy back some of the affected vehicles. ...Besides the settlement over the damage caused to the owners of the fixed vehicles, Volkswagen also needs to deal with the lawsuit carried out by the Department of Justice (DoJ) on behalf of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to Bloomberg, the DoJ might charge VW with tens of billions in fines for the breaking of the Clean Air Acts laws.
Moreover, the US owner of three Volkswagen Group dealerships sued the German carmaker over the losses his retail shops suffered due to the emissions scandal.
According to Bloomberg, an estimate from Evercore ISI suggests that the company’s total cost from the environmental scandal could reach about 30 billion euros.
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So in May London is going to elect a new mayor. An election that might act as a bellwether* for the Brexit vote in June. It's certainly true that London will always be less isolationist than the country at large due to, if nothing else, it's large immigrant population. However a recent, very meaty exchange in the house of commons was the eye candy of a story that made the isolationist cause look like desperate, racist opportunists.
Candidate A for Labour is Sadiq Khan, a British Muslim who shares a pronounced name - though not a spelled name - with one of the 7/7 London bombers (Thanks Search Engine). For the purposes of this story we need only know that he is pro Europe, Brown and Muslim. Candidate B is the Tory candidate, Anti-Europe, white, Eton, Cambridge. Not a great combination in anyone's eyes but those facts aren't normally placed tersely next to his name, the first layer of his paper presence is that he's much funkier than your average Tory grandee. By which I mean Something Something Green Policy He's-younger-and-prettier-than-your-average-Tory. Certainly younger and prettier than Boris Johnson.
In the interests of balance I should point out that Sadiq Kahn is also quite young and quite pretty.
Here is the meaty exchange you've been waiting for:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/20/mps-shout-racist-at-cameron-after-comments-on-sadiq-khan-in-pmqs
My Prime Minister there accusing Sadiq Khan of being an ISIS lover, or at least and ISIS lover lover, which to the bored enough eye, is basically the same thing.
The wee problem for dear leader and Zack Goldsmith - who originally brought the subject of Suliman Gani "ISIS lover" into the debate - is that Suliman Gani supported the Tory Candidate against Khan in the borough he represents; Tooting, providing both canvassers before the election and and being asked to recommend councillors afterwards.
Again, I don't think that "Sadiq wins London" (though it does look like he will) means that the Brexiteers will fair poorly in June, I think that stories like this are going to really hurt them throughout the country.
In fact I'd bet 10,000 epeen on BritIN and I'll give 10-1.
You'd risk only a thousand epeens, srs this is a great deal.
*TIL that the term Bellwether has as much to do with divorcing a Ram from its gonads as it has to do with bells.
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Nice picture man.
Anybody heard about what is happening in Paris with "Nuit Debout" ? Or is it strictly french ?
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Its covered a bit here.
Basically French Occupy Wallstreet with an extra bit of classical French violence at the protests?
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On April 21 2016 23:35 Velr wrote:
Its covered a bit here.
Basically French Occupy Wallstreet with an extra bit of classical French violence at the protests?
Not really.
I'm there right now for the first time, I'm quite dubious.
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On April 21 2016 19:25 xM(Z wrote:https://neurope.eu/article/volkswagen-reportedly-avoids-us-trial-compensates-car-owners-affected/ Show nested quote +Volkswagen Group avoided a trial in the US as it reached a deal with the American authorities over the emissions scandal, media reports say.
German newspaper “Die Welt” and Reuters news agency reported that the German giant multinational agreed to compensate each fixed vehicle owner with $5,000. Moreover, VW will repair the vehicles installed with the “defeat device” and in some cases it may also offer to buy back some of the affected vehicles. ... Show nested quote +Besides the settlement over the damage caused to the owners of the fixed vehicles, Volkswagen also needs to deal with the lawsuit carried out by the Department of Justice (DoJ) on behalf of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to Bloomberg, the DoJ might charge VW with tens of billions in fines for the breaking of the Clean Air Acts laws.
Moreover, the US owner of three Volkswagen Group dealerships sued the German carmaker over the losses his retail shops suffered due to the emissions scandal.
According to Bloomberg, an estimate from Evercore ISI suggests that the company’s total cost from the environmental scandal could reach about 30 billion euros.
www.theguardian.com
All cars tested in a government inquiry set up in the wake of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal exceed laboratory limits for nitrogen oxide when tested in “real world” conditions.
A report published by the Department for Transport revealed that none of the 37 top-selling vehicles met the legal level of 180 mg/km.
Cars meeting Euro 5 standards – which could be sold up to September last year – were all “substantially higher” in real world conditions than the measurements recorded in the laboratory, according to the study.
The Vauxhall Insignia was the worst performer in the inquiry, emitting over 1,800 mg/km.
Even the best performer, the Citroen C4, was found to emit around three times the legal laboratory level.
Real world driving emissions tests will be introduced next year, although diesel cars will initially be allowed to pollute more than double the current legal level because of their limited ability to reduce real world emissions in the short term.
Haha wtf???
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I can't tell whether I should laugh or not.
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On April 22 2016 01:25 Kipsate wrote:
I can't tell whether I should laugh or not.
The nihilistic way in which we treat Earth does have a kind of humourous charm to it.
Fuck it.
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Yea, the press didn't really report the well known (if you're into this kind of stuff) fact that all the car companies were cheating mpg and emissions testing, it was / is standard practise.
What's interesting about the VW case is that, given the fact they are all doing it, this is U.S. gov going after European car manufacturer. Europe will have had to be careful about a response because car manufacture is such a big part of the European economy.
I think we all have to hope that there is some sort of response / more from the U.S. soon so we stand a chance of getting real information about the cars we buy and begin to make better choices. i.e. Hybrid or Electric... yea, that's about it unless you're the sort of human who enjoys older technology, like steam trains or CRTs, which is fair enough, but if that's your hobby you should pay a real premium for the damage you're doing to the climate / the lungs of your neighbours.
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On April 20 2016 05:34 WhiteDog wrote:
I saw Varoufakis three days ago in Republique for the "Nuit Debout", his speech was underwhelming. The future is pretty bleak right now.
As long as protests like Indignados and Nuit Debout refuse to acknowledge the idea that a large movement/revolution without formal leadership has no chance of ever achieving any lasting, meaningful results, they will underwhelm.
Lack of formal organisation was also the main reason why the both Arab Spring and Ukrainian revolution were failures that at best assured that the situation would be as bad as it was before, with equally corrupt and violent but potentially more incompetent leaders in place. The reason why the Muslim Brotherhood came out as the big winners of the Egyptian Arab Spring (at least until the army decided to step in) was because unlike the opposition, they were formally organised.
Even the French Revolution, which rebelled against the aristocracy, ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took the French reins into his own hands after The Terror proved once again that direct democracy by a rabid mob is pretty much the worst form of government imaginable.
Representative Democracy is one of parties representing different interests in society. You need a party with a programme if you want to make a difference. Crowding together is not good enough. "Democracy by gestures" is not a very effective way of running a country.
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On April 21 2016 23:20 WhiteDog wrote:
Nice picture man.
Anybody heard about what is happening in Paris with "Nuit Debout" ? Or is it strictly french ?
German media has reported on it quite a bit but isn't sure what to make of it, they're largely framing it as a diverse group of people protesting economical and social conditions without any clear specific goal.
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On April 22 2016 01:30 Jockmcplop wrote:Show nested quote +On April 22 2016 01:25 Kipsate wrote:
I can't tell whether I should laugh or not. The nihilistic way in which we treat Earth does have a kind of humourous charm to it. Fuck it.
Genesis contains one of my favorite threatening promises in the story of Noah: "Never again will I destroy all life... with water." It's immortalized famously by the song lyric "God gave Noah the rainbow sign / no more water... a fire next time." It's a wonderful joke about a conception of God that's halfway between the polytheistic idea and ethical monotheism... "I won't do that again, but I reserve the right to kill all you fuckers if you piss me off."
Sometimes I wonder if we've been reading the joke wrong all these years and the joke isn't the "water"... it's the "I." Not "I reserve the right to torch you next time" but rather "Next time the waters wreck all your shit, don't blame me for your fuckups."
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On April 22 2016 00:26 corumjhaelen wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2016 23:35 Velr wrote:
Its covered a bit here.
Basically French Occupy Wallstreet with an extra bit of classical French violence at the protests? Not really. I'm there right now for the first time, I'm quite dubious.
Just go drink, and come back at around 2 am, you'll see a completly different picture lol.
Even the French Revolution, which rebelled against the aristocracy, ended when Napoleon Bonaparte took the French reins into his own hands after The Terror proved once again that direct democracy by a rabid mob is pretty much the worst form of government imaginable.
Today, I finally learned that the french revolution was a direct democracy. Or was it ?
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On April 22 2016 02:42 maartendq wrote:Show nested quote +On April 20 2016 05:34 WhiteDog wrote:
I saw Varoufakis three days ago in Republique for the "Nuit Debout", his speech was underwhelming. The future is pretty bleak right now. As long as protests like Indignados and Nuit Debout refuse to acknowledge the idea that a large movement/revolution without formal leadership has no chance of ever achieving any lasting, meaningful results, they will underwhelm.
Do you mean Podemos ? It's a political party now as far i know.
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It's unbelievable that people put other peoples religious choice in front of their names to define them. MUSLIM MAYOR CANDID who gives a fuck for gods sake is it 8 AD ? WILL YOU REALLY LET THOSE PAGANS RULE YOU WHITE MEN?? Oh god, will this ever end before I die?
There is something called LAW. IF a guy believes in some evil god and aims to destroy secular system of British, arrest, displace, jail, punish, torture who cares. IF he worships that god and obey the secular system, praises to his god so he can make good service lmao. There is no need to FEAR.
PS: I still like Cameron.
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On April 23 2016 07:45 lastpuritan wrote:
It's unbelievable that people put other peoples religious choice in front of their names to define them. MUSLIM MAYOR CANDID who gives a fuck for gods sake is it 8 AD ? WILL YOU REALLY LET THOSE PAGANS RULE YOU WHITE MEN?? Oh god, will this ever end before I die?
There is something called LAW. IF a guy believes in some evil god and aims to destroy secular system of British, arrest, displace, jail, punish, torture who cares. IF he worships that god and obey the secular system, praises to his god so he can make good service lmao. There is no need to FEAR.
PS: I still like Cameron.
Not a fan of it either, but how much different is it from Trump, Farage or Le Pen trying to win votes with ideas that every half-intelligent person knows are completely unfeasible?
Rotterdam's mayor is a Muslim of Moroccan descent. So far he has not tried to replace Dutch secular law with Sharia law, which would be kind of hard to do anyway since Muslims with voting rights are barely a 10% minority in any European country anyway.
Rampant wishful thinking populism will run European countries into the ground faster than Muslims gaining a majority vote.
On April 23 2016 04:25 Godwrath wrote:Show nested quote +On April 22 2016 02:42 maartendq wrote:On April 20 2016 05:34 WhiteDog wrote:
I saw Varoufakis three days ago in Republique for the "Nuit Debout", his speech was underwhelming. The future is pretty bleak right now. As long as protests like Indignados and Nuit Debout refuse to acknowledge the idea that a large movement/revolution without formal leadership has no chance of ever achieving any lasting, meaningful results, they will underwhelm. Do you mean Podemos ? It's a political party now as far i know.
That's true, I forgot about that.
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come on men, it's all about cliques, happens everywhere; and his clique won't be white and won't be christian.
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Funnily enough, it wasn't about leadership what turned Podemos, Barcelona en Comú, Las mareas, etc into relevant political parties on Spain, it was when the media actually brought the most vocals of them into debates before the political parties spawned, because they gained massive boosts to audience with them, not because they wanted the other side of the story.
It got to a point where the people part of the stablishment who were debating them would say "if they really want to change something, they should make a political party" pointing them out as "disorganized" which would not achieve anything because they weren't really trying, lacked leadership, etc... like you are saying right now.
Now i am sure most of them regret it.
The problem with those movements is not that they don't have leadership, but that they often get too high on their horses and are not willing to play the game with the hands they are given.
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The EU abandoned or weakened key proposals for new environmental protections after receiving a letter from a top BP executive which warned of an exodus of the oil industry from Europe if the proposals went ahead.
In the 10-page letter, the company predicted in 2013 that a mass industry flight would result if laws to regulate tar sands, cut power plant pollution and accelerate the uptake of renewable energy were passed, because of the extra costs and red tape they allegedly entailed.
The measures “threaten to drive energy-intensive industries, such as refining and petrochemicals, to relocate outside the EU with a correspondingly detrimental impact on security of supply, jobs [and] growth,” said the letter, which was obtained by the Guardian under access to documents laws.
The missive to the EU’s energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, was dated 9 August 2013, partly hand-written, and signed by a senior BP representative whose name has been redacted.
It references a series of “interactions” between the two men – and between BP and an unnamed third party in Washington DC – and welcomes opportunities to further discuss energy issues in an “informal manner”.
BP’s warning of a fossil fuel pull-out from Europe was repeated three times in the letter, most stridently over plans to mandate new pollution cuts and clean technologies, under the industrial emissions directive.
Source
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Austria’s anti-immigration far right has triumphed in the first round of the presidential election, with candidates from the two governing parties failing to even make it into a runoff vote next month.
Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party (FPOe) won 36.7% of the vote, followed by Alexander Van der Bellen backed by the Greens on 19.7% and independent candidate Irmgard Griss on 18.8%, projections showed.
From the governing coalition, Rudolf Hundstorfer from the Social Democrats (SPOe) came joint fourth with just 11.2%, level with Andreas Khol from the People’s party (OeVP).
The result means that, for the first time since 1945, Austria will not have a president backed by either the SPOe or OeVP.
Support for the two parties has been sliding for years and in the last general election in 2013 they only just garnered enough support to re-form Chancellor Werner Faymann’s grand coalition.
It was the best ever result at federal level for the FPOe, whose entry into government in 2000 under the late SS-admiring Jörg Haider sent shockwaves through Europe.
Facing Hofer on 22 May will instead be either Van der Bellen or Griss, a former judge hoping to be Austria’s first female president.
Having a president in the Habsburg dynasty’s former palace in Vienna not from either of the two main parties could shake up the traditionally staid and consensus-driven world of Austrian politics.
Source
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EPT![[image loading]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9281d088fac6e93ac180f14e59c1d7742b5dbb80/0_0_650_444/master/650.jpg?w=940&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=c1f71f25643d53007eadc85cd857116e)
